Talent News

Talent News

Thursday 8th March 2018

The recent Global Chief Procurement Officer Survey 2018 revealed an overwhelming "51% of procurement leaders believe their current teams do not have sufficient levels of skills and capabilities to deliver on their procurement strategy."
The CPO survey asked over 500 procurement leaders from 39 countries representing organisations with a combined annual turnover of $5.5 trillion and over half of those identified a lack of core skills within their procurement function. Identifying the most common leadership traits in procurement are acting as a role model, collaborating internally and externally to deliver value, and delivering results.
Here at The Procurement Academy we have a built a comprehensive process of capability assessment, training needs analysis, succession planning and skills development…

Thursday 22nd February 2018

The colonel is working on it was the humorous response from KFC recently when asked when and how they would resolve the supply issue of chicken as the shortages continue.
The issue stems from KFC switching its deliveries from Bidvest Logistics to DHL in a deal struck last year.
KFC's problem? - They're huge and the press loves a multimillion monumental screw-up. A similar situation happened at Burger King six years ago, so why aren't we learning?
Apparently, the issue is software malfunction and a shortage of staff. Doesn't this remind us of the Olympics when there was a dramatic shortage of security staff, as the customer of G4S wouldn't pay for training and development ahead of schedule, thus…

Wednesday 21st February 2018

What is Category Management?
In a nutshell Category Management is the consolidation of different agreements into a single streamline and efficient contract. The Category part is a grouping if items or services available from the same or a similar supplier base.
The Management side is to own these areas and ensure the business can monopolise on the best available savings.
The benefits to the business.
• Expected savings of between 10-30% upon delivery.
• Development capability across supply base, especially strategic suppliers.
• Shift from a reactive function to a proactive function.
• Improvements cross functionally in quality, cost savings, sales forecasts and service levels.
• Excellent reputation from customers i.e. on-time delivery.
• Reduces risk in the supply chain.
• High payback ratio.
The Procurement Academy offers a 2-day course in Category Management to bring any…

Tuesday 6th February 2018

Mandy Chippindale

If your businesses outflows are far outweighing it's inflows it is easy to opt for cutbacks...and unfortunately one of the first areas to suffer cutbacks is the training budget, this is a crucial mistake and here's why:
1. The right training program will have a plethora of benefits for a company: it increases employee engagement, retention, and productivity; it decreases the need for supervision, reduces absenteeism, improves customer service, and boosts sales.
2. Well-trained employees make less mistakes and, because they feel appreciated the training will increase their loyalty and personal performance. It will improve their own and others perceptions of them.
3. Minimising staff turnaround has to be one of the biggest benefits. If you only have a small training budget utilise this effectively.…

Thursday 18th January 2018

How can we invest in our existing talent?
Investing in our existing talent often requires a cultural change - it can mean altering ingrained attitudes from long-standing members of senior staff. Keeping people in stalemate job situations because they have the monopoly of skills and knowledge to fulfil that role effectively is not acceptable. Having an individual who can fulfil a specific skill is an asset to a manager but keeping them in that role because the prospect of re-training someone to do something which no one else appears to be able to do or want to do - is not the answer. Give that individual a time frame i.e. three months to re-train the prospective candidate and write a…

Wednesday 17th January 2018

The move to succession planning must be one bought in from the CEO and cascaded down at every level. Potential leaders should be identified from junior level up.
You will not retain junior procurement professionals who are often initially motivated and energetic, if you constantly recruit externally and pay the new candidate twice as much as the junior team member. This is un loyal and disrespectful. If that procurement member is a valued member of the team, invest in them. Invest in their training and up skill them. Try a performance related pay contract with your existing junior procurement individual. incremental pay increases dependent on key milestones achieved.
There is no stronger measure of performance than working with someone full time…

Tuesday 16th January 2018

What is succession planning and why it is important?
Succession is defined in the dictionary as;
'A number of people or things of a similar kind following one after the other.'
When we hear the term succession we conjure images of royalty following in the footsteps of royals before them or at the very least family succession - in today's world of procurement this archaic description is not what we mean. Succession in procurement means planning which, if any person can fulfil another person's role if that person at best retires or more realistically leaves for pastures new. (Jobs for life are also a thing of the past, with many procurement professionals jumping ship every few years to progress or climb the…

Wednesday 10th January 2018

1) Organise your work space
This seems a simple one but many times this is the most essential.
Is there enough light? Are you warm enough? Too warm? Are all distractions out of sight? (TV, radio and mobile phone etc?)
Your study space is important, make sure everyone knows you have an exam and you need time and space to revise in a suitable area.
2) Explain your answers to others
Speaking out loud to friends, family, loved ones and even pets can help cermet the information firmly into your brain. If you can't explain it to them thoroughly then you know there are areas which you need to work on.
3) Take regular breaks
Devise a revision schedule giving yourself plenty of breaks.…

Tuesday 2nd January 2018

We deliver excellent training by thoroughly understanding the challenges that face Procurement & Supply Chain leaders today. We are forward thinking; constantly updating our knowledge to keep you and your team ahead of the game in the Procurement profession. We regularly engage with CIPS holding our own talks and conferences on current Procurement & Supply Chain issues such as Modern day slavery.
We believe that having a versatile structure by incorporating blended learning through adobe captivate by using iPad's allows the tech savvy apprentices to save time, effort and the environment (all notes from tutorials can be saved on the iPad.)
All our tutors have a wealth of academic and on-the-job experience: (http://www.theprocurementacademy.com/our-tutors)
We have a structured feedback and monitoring system…

Tuesday 19th December 2017

Mandy Chippindale

In today's world of procurement with its ever changing and fast paced nature some professionals are been left behind in an identified Skills Gap.
The reasons for this skills gap are as follows:
1) Businesses are not aware there is a skill-gap and are not utilising the apprenticeship levy, educational/training budget effectively. This can be
There are some key clues in determining if your organisation is failing to see a skills-gap. These are:
• There is not an extensive history of training/qualification in the procurement team or even the business.
• There is a victim-culture in the procurement team, (it's not my fault, it's the suppliers etc)
• There continuous firefighting and seeing beyond the immediate tender and negotiation process doesn't happen.
• Seen as primarily…

Testimonials

As usual Mandy’s vast experience shone through. I was particularly impressed in the professional & sensitive way she guided some of my more nervous & less experienced colleagues.

Richard Henshaw,Procurement Manager, Nottinghamshire Fire & Rescue

I completed my CIPS training( level 4-6) with Reg Dyson as my tutor. Thanks to Reg’s continuous support and intuitive teaching techniques, I managed to complete the three year course in two years and achieved great results. Achieving MCIPS status while having a demanding full time job would have been much more challenging if it wasn’t for the brilliant resources…

Zeinab Sulaiman,Medical Affairs Operations, Gilead

I would just to like to say a huge thank you to Reg for his relentless patience, help and support during my CIPS studies and in the ongoing support since with professional advice.
The course covered a lot of information, but Reg delivers it in a concise way that was simpler to absorb. The structure was clear, logical and effective. Reg…

Jagpaul Sian,Senior Procurement Manager, Shire Pharmaceuticals

I found it useful that Mandy’s answers and feedback would be given in a considered and constructive way. Mandy created a safe environment for questions and observations that enabled quality group discussions. I gained a lot from the classes that Mandy delivered. I have been on multiple training courses but Mandy is the only tutor that I wouldn’t hesitate to…

I have followed Mandy carrying out the next module in a series of training and the feedback from her students has always been very complimentary. They like her open personable style which creates a good working environment in the training room.